Grade 6 Social Studies Units

Explore Grade 6 Social Studies unit plans with standards-aligned lessons that build global awareness, geographic reasoning, and historical and civic understanding.

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Grade 6 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 36 (Grade 6 Social Studies): Cumulative Synthesis & Exhibition

Show how geography, resources, trade, and civic decision-making connect across global networks as students create maps, models, and inquiry exhibits that synthesize history, economics, civics, and spatial thinking.

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Grade 6 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 35 (Grade 6 Social Studies): Preserving Our Shared Past

Examine how archaeology, museums, and digital archives protect cultural heritage through context, provenance, conservation, and repatriation, highlighting why preserving artifacts and their stories matters for communities today.

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Grade 6 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 34 (Grade 6 Social Studies): Economics of Empire and Trade

Explore how ancient regions produced, traded, and exchanged goods by examining scarcity, opportunity cost, specialization, supply and demand, and interdependence, showing how geography shaped markets and economic decision-making.

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Grade 6 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 33 (Grade 6 Social Studies): Belief Systems and Global Values

Belief systems like Hinduism, Confucianism, Judaism, Buddhism, and polytheistic traditions shaped moral codes, laws, and social order, revealing how values such as justice, duty, and compassion guided early civilizations.

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Grade 6 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 32 (Grade 6 Social Studies): Law, Justice, and Civic Ideals Across Cultures

Compare how ancient civilizations defined justice by examining their law codes, governing structures, and concepts of rights and responsibilities, revealing diverse approaches to fairness across Mesopotamia, Greece/Rome, Persia, South Asia, and East Asia.

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Grade 6 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 31 (Grade 6 Social Studies): The Rise of Global Trade Systems

Analyze how major exchange networks connected Asia, Europe, and Africa, showing how geography, technology, supply/demand, and strategic hubs created interdependent trade systems and spread goods, people, and ideas.

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Grade 6 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 30 (Grade 6 Social Studies): Early Empires of Africa

Explore how Kush, Aksum, and early West African kingdoms used geography, resources, and trade networks to become powerful centers of exchange, culture, and innovation across Africa.

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Grade 6 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 29 (Grade 6 Social Studies): Cultural Diffusion and Innovation

Ideas, beliefs, writing systems, and technologies spread along ancient trade and migration networks, showing how geography, human connections, and cultural exchange transformed societies through adoption, adaptation, and long-lasting turning points.

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Grade 6 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 28 (Grade 6 Social Studies): Trade Routes of the Ancient World

Global overland and maritime trade networks—Silk Road routes and Indian Ocean/Mediterranean sea lanes—moved goods, ideas, and technologies across regions, revealing how geography, monsoons, supply/demand, and strategic hubs shaped interdependent Afro-Eurasian exchange.

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Grade 6 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 27 (Grade 6 Social Studies): Midyear Project—Legacies of Greece and Rome

Roman governance, the Senate, and the Twelve Tables laid the foundations of rule of law and citizenship, showing how written laws, shared rights, and civic responsibilities shaped fairness, voice, and public life in the early Roman Republic.

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Grade 6 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 26 (Grade 6 Social Studies): Rome’s Republic and Laws

Roman governance, the Senate, and the Twelve Tables laid the foundations of rule of law and citizenship, showing how written laws, shared rights, and civic responsibilities shaped fairness, voice, and public life in the early Roman Republic.

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Grade 6 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 25 (Grade 6 Social Studies): The Rise of Rome

Rome’s geography, origin stories, and early political struggles shaped its transition from monarchy to a republic, helping explain how physical location, cultural influences, and evolving civic roles laid the foundation for citizen participation in early Rome.

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Grade 6 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 24 (Grade 6 Social Studies): Alexander the Great and Hellenistic Culture

Greek ideas, language, and science spread across the Hellenistic world as new cities, ports, and caravan routes created powerful networks of diffusion and trade interdependence from the Mediterranean to South and Central Asia.

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Grade 6 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 23 (Grade 6 Social Studies): The Persian Empire and Cultural Exchange

Persian rule blended tolerance, satrapy governance, and powerful infrastructure—roads, relay posts, coinage, and qanats—to maintain order, boost trade, and spread ideas across a diverse, connected empire.

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Grade 6 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 22 (Grade 6 Social Studies): Sparta and Athens Compared

Compare how Sparta and Athens organized government, education, and the military, and evaluate how each system shaped roles, rights, and civic responsibilities using evidence from multiple perspectives.

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Grade 6 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 21 (Grade 6 Social Studies): Greek Culture and Innovation

Explore how Greek achievements in architecture, drama, philosophy, science, and mathematics shaped civic life in the polis and created enduring cultural legacies that continue to influence modern societies.

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Grade 6 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 20 (Grade 6 Social Studies): Ancient Greece—The Polis and Democracy

Examine how Greek city-states developed distinct forms of governance, with a close look at Athens—its direct democracy, institutions, and limits on participation—and trace how Athenian civic ideas continue to influence modern political systems.

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Grade 6 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 19 (Grade 6 Social Studies): The Geography of the Mediterranean

Explore how seas, islands, straits, winds, and currents shaped Mediterranean settlement and trade, using map tools like scale, coordinates, and legends to analyze routes and regional connections.

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Grade 6 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 18 (Grade 6 Social Studies): Inquiry Project—Life in Ancient Times

Guide students to research an early civilization using credible sources, evaluate evidence, and communicate findings through a curated museum exhibit or investigative report that explains daily life, beliefs, economy, and governance with clear citations.

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Grade 6 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 17 (Grade 6 Social Studies): Comparing River Civilizations

Compare how geography, government, and technology shaped four major river civilizations—Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus Valley, and the Huang He—revealing why similar environments produced different political, economic, and cultural outcomes.

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Grade 6 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 16 (Grade 6 Social Studies): Belief Systems and Cultural Legacy

Explore how Hindu, Confucian, and early polytheistic belief systems shaped law, leadership, social roles, and civic ideals—and how their core ideas of duty, justice, and order continue to influence cultures and institutions today.

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Grade 6 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 15 (Grade 6 Social Studies): Ancient China and the Huang He River

Explore how the Huang He’s fertile yet hazardous environment shaped early Chinese settlement, how Shang and Zhou technologies and artifacts reveal work and power, and how trade routes and diffusion spread goods and ideas across East Asia.

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Grade 6 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 14 (Grade 6 Social Studies): Indus Valley Civilization

Explore how monsoon-fed rivers powered Indus Valley farming, how Mohenjo-Daro’s advanced city planning and water systems revealed organized governance, and how trade routes and specialized goods connected the Indus to thriving ports and distant regions.

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Grade 6 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 13 (Grade 6 Social Studies): Egypt and the Nile

Explore how the Nile’s geography and flood cycle powered Egypt’s rise—creating fertile farmland, surplus, and centralized rule—and how pharaohs used labor, resources, monuments, and trade networks across Africa and the Mediterranean to build a wealthy, connected civilization.

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Grade 6 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 12 (Grade 6 Social Studies): Hammurabi’s Code and Early Law

Explore how early law codes—especially Hammurabi’s—helped governments maintain order, security, and resource management while shaping ideas of justice, fairness, and rule of law that influenced later legal traditions.